Jučerašnji post o BusPlus-u je definitivno izazvao dosta reakcija. I ovakvih i onakvih, što se kaže.
Valjda smo predugo čekali ovaj sistem, i morao je biti savršen već prvog dana da ne bismo osuli paljbu i sklopili 1001 teoriju zavere, igrali se gluvih telefona neproverenim informacijama i sl. Naravno, sistem nije bio savršen prvog dana, pa se sve ovo pomenuto i desilo. Bruji čaršija na sve strane – javljaju se oni koji svakodnevno koriste javni prevoz, oni koji nisu ušli u isti poslednjih 20 godina, ali i oni koji dolaze u Beograd jednom godišnje. Svima je nešto u BusPlus sistemu juče i danas zasmetalo – nekima što sistem ne radi, a nekima i zato što radi (čuvena priča – “kad budem zarađivao koliko u EU, onda neka mi uvode te “njihove” sisteme” i sl). Čak su se i neke političke opcije javile sa izveštajima, a bar jedna televizija sa nacionalnom frekvencijom i upecala na priču da je vlasnik sin bivšeg ministra.

I sve ja to kapiram, to je odlika naše kulture u poslednjih par decenija. Jednostavno nismo navikli da neko napravi nešto, a da se neko nije ugradio ili da nije “odrađeno” pa da asfalt na putevima traje 3x kraće nego što treba, na primer. I, da budem iskren, nisam još uvek ubeđen da to ovde nije slučaj. Vreme će pokazati.

Ali, hoću da pogledam i ono što je već sada pozitivno u celoj priči. Hoću da im dam šansu da kažu šta imaju, jer to niko do sada nije uradio (pogledajte samo ovaj prilog gde je Vlahović i pre svoje nespretne izjave već osuđen jer je “sin toga i toga”). I hoću da razgovaram sa njima, pa ću ih pljuvati tek kad budem video da stvarno ne žele da isprave greške i implementiraju unapređenja. Mislim, znam da ovaj sistem ima ogroman potencijal (znajući kako funkcioniše u Istanbulu), pa čak i ako se sve slutnje obistine (neko se ugradio + nesposobna uprava), ‘ajde da umesto hejta reagujemo i nateramo ih da sve to proradi onako kako treba. Hajde da budemo konstruktivni.

I bio sam baš happy kad se juče javila Gaga Đermanović, zainteresovala za temu sa PR aspekta, odmah uspostavila kontakt sa Veljkom Vlahovićem, a on reagovao krajnje pozitivno i pristao da nam odgovori na nekoliko pitanja i time praktično započne dijalog. Možda im je PR loš ovih dana, ali makar “gazda” hoće da komunicira.

Odgovore na pitanja prenosim onako kako sam ih i dobio, bez izmena.

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P: Ako sistem u Istanbulu odlično funkcioniše sa samo jednim aparatom za validaciju (na prednjim vratima, pri čemu očitavanje traje isto koliko i u Beogradskom, i gužve se ne stvaraju), zašto taj sistem nismo implementirali i u Beogradu?

O: U prevozu u Beogradu postoji dosta linija koje sugrađani koriste kako bi se prevezli dve ili tri stanice I kod kojih je prirodniji sistem naplate zasnovan na rastojanju. On zahteva čekiranje prilikom ulaska i izlaska i cenu karte na osnovu pređenog puta. U tim situacijama neophodni su uređaji na svim vratima.

Pored toga, usled specifičnosti organizacije prevoza u glavnom gradu, kao i činjenice da se mi teško navikavamo na novine, postojala je realna bojazan da u startu, otvaranjem samo prednjih vrata promenu učinimo naizgled komplikovanijom. Već sam sistem predstavlja značajnu promenu u navikama korisnika prevoza.  Kada se priviknemo i prilagodimo na sistem BusPlus i kada bude bilo dovoljno vozila (kako se ne bi stvarale gužve), možemo da razmišljamo i o tome.

P: Ako je već omogućeno putnicima da ulaze na bilo koja vrata, zbog čega je validacija karte moguća samo dok je autobus na stanici (plus 100m od stanice, kako pročitah u nekim dnevnim novinama)? Ljudi se zapričaju, zaborave da otkucaju pri ulasku u bus, ili pak bude pokvaren jedan od uređaja… Nije li logičnije da očitavanje bude omogućeno u bilo kom trenutku, a da kontrolori očitavanjem svoje kartice blokiraju dalja očitavanja dok su oni u busu?

O: Za sada putnici mogu da overe svoje kartice i za sve vreme trajanja vožnje. Akcenat je na stvaranju navike kod putnika da karticu pripreme pre ulaska u vozilo, a da ih overavaju prilikom samog ulaska. Na taj način doprinose bržem i efikasnijem ulasku u vozilo. Tako uostalom i funkcioniše sistem ulaska na prednja vrata koji ste već pominjali i istakli kao pozitivan.

P: Iako većina ljudi razume potrebu da se mesečne karte očitavaju zbog statističke obrade i bolje usluge, ipak toj istoj većini nije jasno kažnjavanje (jer ipak su tu kartu platili, bila očitana ili ne). Kako biste to objasnili?

O: Građani koji koriste personalizovane (mesečne) karte za sada neće biti kažnjavani, već samo opominjani da to i urade kada ulaze u vozilo. Cilj BusPlusa je da sistem prevoza bude jednostavniji i brži kako bi konačno građanima olakšano svakodnevno korišćenje prevoza.

P: U većini gradova sa uređenim javnim prevozom (čak i mnogo manje digitalizovanim od ovog našeg), jednom očitana karta traje 45-90 minuta i prevozi se mogu menjati u tom periodu. I bez ulaženja u pitanje standarda stanovništva i sl, jednostavno zvuči nelogično da Beograd nije iskoristio priliku da implementira takvo rešenje. Zbog čega?

O: Grad Beograd je pored želje da unapredi sistem javnog prevoza želeo da sačuva prihode, i da vidi efekat uvođenja sistema na prihode od prodaje. Da bi podaci bili uporedivi nije bilo predviđeno da se menja tarifni sistem. Naravno, sam sistem podržava mnoge opcije uključujući i to da jednom očitana karta važi određeno vreme. Kada sistem zaživi u punom obimu, i kada se prikupe svi neophodni podaci, razmišljaće se o uvođenju novina koje bi unapredile sistem, između ostalog i vremenskih karata.

P: Zbog čega nepersonalizovana papirna karta koja se dopunjuje do samo 600 dinara, a ne dnevna, vikend ili nedeljna i polumesečna karta, kakve već postoje u većini velikih gradova?

O: Nadam se da sam barem delimično odgovorio i na ovo pitanje u prethodnom odgovoru. Sistem je tek pušten u rad i papirna nepersonalizovana karta je prilagođena postojećem tarifnom sistemu, a biće od koristi turistima I svima onima koji ređe koriste prevoz u glavnom gradu.

P: Mnogo se priča o privatnosti podataka i zabrani koju je izneo Poverenik za informacije od javnog značaja, gospodin Šabić. Šta stvarno BusPlus radi sa podacima, gde ih skladišti, na koji način obrađuje i na koji vremenski period čuva?

O: Podaci koji se prikupljaju se čuvaju na zaštićenoj lokaciji, kriptovani su, i čuvaju se u vremenskom roku u kojem važe i same legitimacije. Baza podataka i namera obrade je prijavljena kancelariji Poverenika, koji je i izvršio nadzor kako se sami podaci čuvaju i skladište. Zabrana koja je izrečena se odnosi na to da se lični podaci ne smeju uparivati sa podacima o kretanju što BusPlus i ne čini. Svaki korak u poslovanju primarno je koncipiran u korist građana. Svi smo se tome u potpunosti prilagodili.

P: Šta je sa tehničkom podrškom? Već se da primetiti da je dosta uređaja polomljeno. Da li je organizovana zamena istog dana ili kako već?

O: Tehnička podrška je važan stub poslovanja celog sistema. Svaki oštećeni ili pokvareni uređaj će istog dana u najkraćem vremenskom roku biti zamenjen, kao što je to i do sada bilo činjeno.

P: Iako ne volim priče o vlasničkoj strukturi i organizaciji i sl, mislim da je ipak važno da i to objasnite, transparentnosti radi – šta je uloga Apex-a, šta GSP-a, a šta Grada Beograda? Ko tu šta kome, kako i koliko? Ko je zadužen za održavanje vozila? Kome se građani žale za koji deo usluge?

O: Podaci o vlasničkoj strukturi nisu tajna, i mogu se videti na sajtu Agencije za privredne registre. Uloga grada Beograda, odnosno Direkcije za javni prevoz je kompletna organizacija i kontrola gradskog prevoza u Beogradu. GSP je svakako najznačijniji prevoznik jer učestvuje sa oko 75%, ali ovu ulogu obavljaju i ostali učesnici (privatni prevoznici i Lasta). Za održavanje vozila su zaduženi sami prevoznici, dok je za održavanje opreme sistema BusPlus, zadužen Apex Solution Technology doo. Građani se za sve probleme mogu obratiti svim navedenim učesnicima u sistemu, jer su svi na usluzi građanima koji su korisnici ovih usluga.

P: Šta biste Vi rekli da je ono što građani i gosti Beograda dobijaju ovim sistemom, a da do sada nisu imali? Šta je dodata vrednost ovog sistema?

O: I građani i gosti Beograda će se tek uveriti u prednosti koje će imati od sistema BusPlus. Pre svega, građani su dobili jedinstvenu karticu sa kojom mogu da se voze i u ITS1 I ITS2. Građani koji dolaze iz ITS2 u grad, sada imaju veću mogućnost izbora kombinovanja zona (npr. plaćaju dopunu za zonu 1 i 2 u ITS2 i za ITS1, ili za  zonu 2 i 3 i ITS1, itd). U narednim fazama biće razmotreno i uvođenje drugih vrsta karata. Ovakav sistem je mnogim evropskim gradovima doneo uštede, a samim tim je taj novac uložen u dalji razvoj  gradskih prevoznika. BusPlusu je potrebna podrška građana, a dobrobit po njih sigurno neće izostati. U to nas uverava i odlična međunarodna praksa.

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Da zaključim, ukratko:

Da li je ovaj intervju zadovoljio moje apetite i dao mi sve odgovore koje sam želeo? Nije, iako je rekao dosta.
Voleo bih da je bio detaljniji, ali je svejedno odličan početak komunikacije, i verujem da će se Gdin Vlahović i ekipa iz BusPlusa javiti i u komentarima da pojasne šta nas još zanima.

Zahvaljujem se Veljku Vlahoviću na brzoj reakciji i saradljivosti, kao i Dragani Đermanović na preduzimljivosti i pomoći oko ovog intervjua.

Idemo dalje.

Konstruktivno!

Picture credits: http://lindzpagel.blogspot.com/

Ever since I started thinking about and discovering the idea of Social Entrepreneurship and Business, I realized just how much the system we live in needs to be reinvented. How much we all need to change.

Corporate Social Responsibility is not enough anymore. Businesses need to reinvent themselves and get back to pro-customer, pro-user, instead of pro-shareholder.

Of course, when I say so, it’s a bunch of crap coming from an idealist, but when Harvard Business School professors discuss the issue and write a book “Capitalism at Risk: Rethinking the Role of Business“, then I can only say that we might just be closer to the end of capitalism then we thought.

Check out this short interview with the authors of the book:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1Et7s6ALRw

What do you think? What’s coming after capitalism?

Emel did it again! Twice, that is!

After receiving great feedback for her first Post-it notes Story (The Story of a Man, His World and his Wall), she decided to “try her luck” once more, embraced her talent and created these two great short stories. I’m sure you’ll be able to connect to at least one of them, if not both like I do…

I’ll keep posting Emel’s stories here on my blog, until I manage to convince her to start her own…

Enjoy!

The Magic of 5 minutes

The New Hire

Formal education sucks.

I said it before and am gonna keep repeating in until someone proves me wrong. To be clear, I’m talking about business and technical studies here, so not medicine, pharmacy and alike.

Why do I say this? Well, you see, I’m in business for more then 10 years already, started in business, moved to the government, then NGOs and finally back to business again (see my About me page). In all of these jobs a University degree was required, and I was “an exception that proves the rule”. And still am, actually.

Now, not that I’m too smart or anything, but thing is that in all of these jobs, University degree is either not needed because the job is not too complicated, or the University degree itself is completely irrelevant. Of course, I’m not saying that these jobs don’t require knowledge and skills, but am saying, loud and clear, that this knowledge does not require University. For some of it because it would be stupid that we learn such things there and for some because the formal education system is lagging at least 20 years behind the business. Everything I learned I did either by myself, or on specific courses, and mostly experiential. Needles to say, most of this knowledge I acquired was free of charge or cheap. Sure, there are smart things to hear at Universities too, and smart and inventive lecturers. Am not even gonna go into evaluating the importance of student life and parties etc.

But is it worth the investment? Does it provide what it promises?

No.

And then I asked myself many times why is this happening and how is it possible that existing Education system can be so slow? I mean, education system used to be a backbone of development worldwide, and smartest of them used to be gathered around Universities. And today, we hire you and then teach you your job during induction days and through learning activities of all sorts, but still we require a diploma of any kind.
I argued many times in the places I worked and work today – are we looking for and hiring people that will add value to the company or people that fulfill most of the criteria given by the job catalogue? Usually managers either tell me that “it has to be done because of the procedure” or “blah, it’s a stupid copy-paste mistake in the job advertisement”. The same people I argued with told me that they understand that University system is lagging behind and does not give us people with skills and knowledge we need. And You see, they still require the same!? Freakin’ Lemmings!

I urge you, people, please stop doing this!

These “mistakes” and stupid procedures are supporting the system that doesn’t do any good to us or our development. If there is no school for Human Resources professionals, then don’t require random diplomas (in our case it’s Economy, Organizational Sciences, Psychology and similar) just to fulfill the procedure. This is plainly stupid for many reasons:

• you’re discouraging some of the great talents to apply, because they “don’t fit within the criteria”,
• you’re encouraging the system that says – Uni diploma is a piece of paper that you need to fulfill the criteria and nothing else,
• you’re sending a message that you are a Lemming, either because you don’t understand the issue, or you don’t care or you are just lazy to try to change anything.
• by being a Lemming, you don’t have the right to blame your workforce for bad results. It is your fault!

What can you do, though?

• If you are a manager: require talent, knowledge, skills, stuff that really matters – not Uni diploma
• If you are a manager: promote learning in your company, not education and training. Don’t know the difference? Google it!
• If you are a lecturer or anyone in academic sector: don’t limit your students with formal education. Encourage them to open their minds and look outside of their books. Promote tools for learning, websites that matter, organize and promote discussions around topics that are interesting.
• If you are a decision maker within the government: relax the freakin’ system and lead the true reform of the system. The thing that Serbia (and other developing countries) is so small, poor and behind the West is a chance for us, not the problem. Technology is cheap and can only empower knowledge sharing and development!
• Whoever you are, promote tools like social networks, blogs, or any knowledge sharing and learning tools there are. Check out, for example, skillshare.com. Below is their promo video – Let’s start a learning revolution. It’s meant for US market, but it’s pretty much the same everywhere:

Let’s Start a Learning Revolution from Skillshare on Vimeo.

Also, check out the ideas and plans of the World Bank, which is rolling out their new Education strategy these days. Dragana Markovic wrote about it on her blog, check her post here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWv72ZQRnY4

To conclude:

Don’t be a Lemming!

Empower learning and knowledge, not procedures and rules!

Do something!

I’m not really sure who’s fail this is, as I don’t like pointing finger at anyone and am quite sure that all players in this chain have “logical” explanation, but in the bottom line, it is Toshiba’s responsibility and definitely deserves attention as a great example of how a great company can fail in customer focus/relations/centricity.

So, what happened was that a friend bought a Toshiba laptop with Windows Vista pre-installed and with a free upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium Edition. A free upgrade sounds very good, especially since Win7 is far better option then Vista, easier to use, faster, more secure etc…
And doing the actual upgrade should be really easy, shouldn’t it? I mean, the year is 2010, even in Serbia a lot of people have a good internet connection and downloading the upgrade file should not be a big deal… Or the company itself should offer free upgrade service to it’s clients. Not a big deal really…

However, it is not that easy as it sounds, apparently… He was told that he will be contacted regarding the upgrade and 2 weeks later he was contacted by DHL and gets this:

If you can’t see it properly, it’s a ~77 EUR bill, and it came with an information that you additionally have to pay customs, VAT and if you don’t have your own carrier, they will use their daughter company (or something) and will charge you extra 5.000 RSD (~50 EUR).
Simple math told him that this “free” upgrade will cost him around 14.000 RSD (~140 EUR) which is 2.000 RSD (~20 EUR) more then buying a Full Home Premium version od Win7 in Belgrade. Just how stupid and illogical does this sound?
Of course, he sent them an e-mail to return the shipment…

I don’t know anyone in Toshiba Serbia, but would be cool if this post somehow reaches someone there, and would be even more cool if that someone contacted me to get this friend’s contacts and actually tried to fix this problem (regardless of who in the chain has actually failed).

(Funnily enough, this example came just in time when a company I work for is pointing out customer centricity as one of our major focuses, so I’ll use this as a very good example)

I have been thinking about writing about Generation Y for almost 2 months already, and still am thinking quite a lot about the topic, especially when it comes to analyzing GenY in Serbia… I promise I will write my comments about it very soon, and ’til then enjoy this fantastic text that Sandra shared with me today.

If you are not familiar with what the term Generation Y stands for, do click here first.

The text below is originally found at http://management.silicon.com/itdirector/0,39024855,39405160,00.htm

Five ways Gen Y will change the way you work
Don Tapscott on Millennials: ‘Show us the wikis, not the money’

By Nick Heath

Published: Thursday 26 March 2009

The Millennials are coming – armed with Facebook accounts and netbooks, the latest generation of young workers are entering the workplace ready to raze traditional touchstones of business to the ground.

Web 2.0 evangelist Don Tapscott – author of tech titles including Wikinomics and The Digital Economy – is forecasting a “big conflict” in the office, sparked by the generation of 11- to 30-year-olds who are determined to reshape the workplace in their own image.

Talking to silicon.com about his latest book Grown Up Digital, Tapscott laid out five “generational firewalls” that bosses need to tear down if they want to attract the brightest and best of Generation Y.

“We do the opposite of what we should be doing, which is learning from this culture,” he told silicon.com.

“The whole paradigm that you train, you supervise, you compensate and you retain – all of those are wrong.”

Here’s Tapscott’s top five ways to embrace the Millennials’ working culture.

Don’t supervise

Understand that in their age group there is a new culture of work: the social network is the new operating system for business.

The way that they work is by using networks like Facebook and Twitter to create a new nervous system.

If you have a great collaborative environment, that is going to be way more attractive to them than paying them lots of money and tightly controlling the way they work.

I’m talking about using wikis, blogs, social networks and collaborative filtering in the workplace.

For example, US electronics retailer Best Buy has a social network for employees called Blue Shirt Nation, with 70,000 people at the electronic water cooler every day who are coming up with great ideas that are being implemented.

You always see the same argument: ‘Why should we embrace this new thing? The old ways have always worked.’

It results in better performance and better innovation in business – that is why we should adopt these practices, because it’s good for us.

That also means giving employees freedom of work – having the ability to work at home and to set their own hours – and allowing employees to have custom job descriptions – as they do at Deloitte.

Dead as a Dodo – the tech that Gen-Y will sweep away

Email

“Young people see email as good for sending a thank you letter to an aunt but not much else.”

Websites

“The internet is increasingly about building community, not providing content – it offers a way for people to self-organise to create communities. That is why Facebook beat Match.com, why bloggers are beating CNN.com and why Wikipedia is beating Encyclopaedia Britannica.”

Datacentres

“They are going to move into the cloud, in much the same way that electricity companies moved away from the practice of having their own power plants onsite during the early days of electricity.”

Fixed line phones

“They will be replaced by mobile devices.”

The personal computer

“They will be replaced by small always-connected devices with a high degree of mobility. The personal computer was always an oxymoron for me, it’s like the idea of personal sex. The purpose of computing is to communicate.”

Traditional data processing

“This is headed for the ashcan of history. Everything in a report will have an XML tag called eXtensible Business Reporting Language.” [This provides an identifying tag for each piece of information which is computer readable so the machine can understand what data it is handling].

Don’t train

Rather than spending so much on training people, why not invest in increasing the learning and collaborative components at work?

It’s called knowledge work, where work and learning is the same activity. Why shouldn’t work be fun?

The training department at my company nGenera is that everybody must blog on a regular basis.

Why isn’t every job like that? Where working and learning are the same thing, you increase the learning component for day-to-day activities, so you get both better learning and better work.

Don’t retain people

There are all kinds of new ways to harness human capital without it being inside your boundaries at all times.

The talent does not have to be inside: at Procter and Gamble half of its innovation team are outside the company.

There is a case in Grown Up Digital of Denis Hancock, who is running the Wikinomics blog – I will have hired him five times by the time he is 32.

I am creating an alumni network I can draw on, it’s so good to have Denis but I don’t try and retain him.

I communicate with Denis on a social network and occasionally he shows up at the office. I’ll take him anyway I can get him.

It’s about how you architect a corporation and about rethinking how you orchestrate capability.

Don’t hide behind security fears

At their fingertips employees have these powerful tools of social networks and what do we do with them? We ban them, we ban Facebook.

There’s no security issue that you can’t handle – for Pete’s sake, the CIA have a social networking wiki, called Intellipedia, the way you get better security is by opening up and sharing information.

I heard the same arguments 15 years ago from people who did not want the internet in their company because they were afraid there would be security violations and people would be wasting time.

These are called implementation challenges, they are not reasons to not do it but things that you need to take into account.

Don’t recruit

Instead, initiate relationships with your potential employees at an early age using social networks.

A corollary of that is don’t spend money on advertising for recruitment – it’s a waste of time, better to get a big pile of money and burn it.

“Today, the concept of business is to make money. Making money is the name of the business. And profit maximization is the mission of business. And I’m saying this is very narrow interpretation of human being. Human beings are much bigger than just making money. So I said, to be true to the human nature, we should include at least one more type of business, business to do good to people, without an expectation of making any personal gain out of it.”

Mohammad Yunus

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica – U.S. Coast Guards have seized a submarine carrying 3.5 tons of cocaine in the Pacific Ocean off Costa Rica and arrested three Colombians on board, the Costa Rican Coast Guard said Sunday.

Link

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 13 ? The ambitious founders of Google, the popular search engine company, have set up a philanthropy, giving it seed money of about $1 billion and a mandate to tackle poverty, disease and global warming.

But unlike most charities, this one will be for-profit, allowing it to fund start-up companies, form partnerships with venture capitalists and even lobby Congress. It will also pay taxes.

Full text here